The February issue of Genii is now online and has been mailed to subscribers. Join us and subscribe at http://www.geniimagazine.comMax Maven has been a ubiquitous presence in the world of magic for 40 years. He is recognized as the world’s premier mentalist, and as a creator of an enormous amount of original magic of all kinds. All of this and more is captured in a new four DVD set titled Kayfabe, created by Luis de Matos as part of The Essential Magic Collection. Our eye in Britain, David Britland, was in Portugal for the shooting of the DVDs and interviewed Max for our cover story, which is accompanied by a bunch of videos in our digital edition.

The Tenyo Company of Japan was very busy in 2017, putting 16 new tricks on the market. This includes six of their regular line that magicians look forward to each year, but also many others themed to licensed characters that are not sold outside Japan. I’ll give you a look at all of them in my story. Of course the demonstration video of each trick appears in our digital edition. A Japanese TV crew flew to Washington, D.C. to interview me about Tenyo for the widely watched program Japanese show Warfu Sohonke. They spent five hours here, and if you are curious to see some of my Tenyo collection, or what I sound like dubbed by a manly Japanese voice, that video also appears in this issue.

Mel Babcock is a name known to collectors of finely made wooden magic apparatus. Mel has been making magic for many years and we thought you’d find it interesting to peek inside his workshop.

Jim Steinmeyer explains a colorful bit of symbolic mentalism in “Conjuring”; Bob Read ponders the confusions of modern society, Nothing is What it Seems, in “Hidden Treasures”; John Gaughan puts a playing card inside an egg, and the egg inside a boxwood vase, in his “Chamber of Secrets”: Jeff Prace magically yanks a breath strip through the side of its container in “Left-Handed” (with video); David Kaye wants you to think about whether you’re a jerk or an expert in “The Expert at the Kids’ Table”; magic opens a door for Hannibal in “Happiness is the Road”; Jon Racherbaumer casts a wary eye on the digital future in “On the Slant”; John Guastaferro teaches three new tricks, including an item from his own self Mr. Racherbaumer, in “Magicana” (with video): Todd Karr passes along the latest tidbits of life in “The Eye.” Reviews of books, tricks, and videos this month are by Kainoa Harbottle, David Oliver, and Joe M. Turner respectively. Our digital issue contains audio columns by Jon Racherbaumer and John Lovick, and this month we run the last of the three videos Eugene Burger had prepared for his column before his untimely death last summer. Joining Genii’s team of reviewers in “Light from the Lamp” this year are Brad Henderson (tricks), Shiv Duggal (videos), and Ryan Matney (also, videos).